You can format your text by using wiki markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, apostrophes or equal signs which have a special function in the wiki, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, you include it in two pairs of apostrophes like ''this''.

# one
# two
#* two point one
#* two point two
# three
#; three item one
#: three def one
# four
#: four def one
#: this looks like a continuation
#: and is often used
#: instead <br />of <nowiki><br /></nowiki>
# five
## five sub 1
### five sub 1 sub 1
## five sub 2

The usage of #: and *: for breaking a line within an item may also harm accessibility.

one

two

two point one

two point two

three

three item one

three def one

four

four def one

this looks like a continuation

and is often used

instead
of <br />

five

five sub 1

five sub 1 sub 1

five sub 2

Preformatted text

Start each line with a space.
Text is '''preformatted''' and
''markups'' '''''can''''' be done.

This way of preformatting only applies to section formatting. Character formatting markups are still effective.

Start each line with a space.
Text is preformatted and
markupscan be done.

Preformatted text blocks

<nowiki>Start with a space in the first column,
(before the <nowiki>).
Then your block format will be
maintained.
This is good for copying in code blocks:
def function():
"""documentation string"""
if True:
print True
else:
print False</nowiki>

Start with a space in the first column,
(before the <nowiki>).
Then your block format will be
maintained.
This is good for copying in code blocks:
def function():
"""documentation string"""
if True:
print True
else:
print False

Paragraphs

MediaWiki ignores single line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can force a line break within a paragraph with the HTML tag <br />.

HTML tags

Some HTML tags are allowed in MediaWiki, for example <code>, <div>, <span> and <font>. These apply anywhere you insert them.

Description

You type

You get

Inserted
(Displays as underline in most browsers)

<ins>Inserted</ins>
or
<u>Underline</u>

Inserted

or

Underline

Deleted
(Displays as strikethrough in most browsers)

<s>Struck out</s>
or
<del>Deleted</del>

Struck out

or

Deleted

Fixed width text

<code>Source code</code>
or
<tt>Fixed width text</tt>

Source code

or

Fixed width text

Blockquotes

Text before
<blockquote>Blockquote</blockquote>
Text after

Text before

Blockquote

Text after

Comment

<!-- This is a comment -->
Comments are visible only
in the edit zone.

Comments are visible only in the edit zone.

Completely preformatted text

<pre>Text is '''preformatted''' and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done</pre>

For marking up of preformatted text, check the "Preformatted text" entry at the end of the previous table.

Text is '''preformatted''' and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done

Customized preformatted text

<pre style="color: red">Text is '''preformatted'''
with a style and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done
</pre>

A CSS style can be named within the style property.

Text is '''preformatted'''
with a style and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done

continued:

Description

You type

You get

Customized preformatted text with text wrap according to available width

This long sentence is used to demonstrate text wrapping. This additional sentence makes the text even longer.

Preformatted text with text wrap according to available width

<code>
This long sentence is used to demonstrate text wrapping. This additional sentence makes the text even longer.
</code>

This long sentence is used to demonstrate text wrapping. This additional sentence makes the text even longer.

Inserting symbols

Symbols and other special characters not available on your keyboard can be inserted through a special sequence of characters. Those sequences are called HTML entities. For example, the following sequence (entity) &rarr; when inserted will be shown as right arrow HTML symbol → and &mdash; when inserted will be shown as an em dash HTML symbol —.

Hover over any character to find out the symbol that it produces. Some symbols not available in the current font will appear as empty squares.

See the list of all HTML entities on the Wikipedia article List of HTML entities. Additionally, MediaWiki supports two non-standard entity reference sequences: &רלמ; and &رلم; which are both considered equivalent to &rlm; which is a right-to-left mark. (Used when combining right to left languages with left to right languages in the same page.)